Aloo wadiyan (Potatoes with urad dal wadiyan)

﻿A﻿loo wadiyan is a very popular dish in North India. Wadiyan are sun dried spicy urad dal dumplings or nuggets. They are very spicy and each bite sends a spice burst in your mouth.

Wadiyan’s are made with urad dal. Urad dal is first soaked then grinded, and then dal paste is kept overnight to ferment and to give the savor taste. Then whole spices like whole black pepper, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, red chili powder, salt, asafetida and grated petha (white squash) are added to the dough. Then with the fingers one at a time small blobs of the dough, the size of ping pong balls dropped on a cotton fabric, and then left under hot summer sun to dry. After the balls of dough are dried they can be kept for longer period of time.

Normally one or two wadis are broken into small pieces and sautéed with some oil and then cooked with vegetables. Most of the time wadiyan are cooked with potatoes but they can be added with several vegetables and pulao. They go well with chapattis and any other Indian bread. They are available at Indian grocery stores.

There are two recipes to cook Urad dal wadi one with the onions and one without the onions.

﻿Directions:﻿1. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut them into ½” pieces2. Gently break the urad dal wadiyan into small pieces by hitting them with a rolling pin or in a mortar & pestle.

3. In a nonstick frying pan heat 1 tablespoon oil, add wadi pieces and sauté them for 4 to 5 minutes or until they become brown. Then take them out of the pan and keep aside in the plate.

Broken wadiyan pieces

In a pan heat the oil

Sauté wadi pieces in the frying pan

Wadi's are sautéed

4. Use a food chopper or blender to mince the onions. Puree should be coarse.

5. On high heat add 2 tablespoons of oil in the same pan wadiyan were fried add cumin seeds and asafetida and fry for 2 minutes or until cumin seeds become brown.

Sautéed wadiyan

Fry cumin seeds and asafetida

6. Add minced onions and sauté them while periodically stirring. Onions will have a lot of water so for the first 8 to 10 minutes keep the heat high so that all the onion water evaporates quickly.

7. While onions fry add the tomatoes to the same food chopper or blender and puree.8. Once the onion water has evaporated turn the heat down to medium and let the onions fry for 8 to 9 minutes, frequently stir the onions.

In the pan add minced onions

Onions become light brown

9. Once the onions become light brown add coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder and mix with the fried onions and fry for few seconds.

Add coriander powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder

Mix the spices with fried onions

10. Add tomato puree and yogurt. With the tomato puree and yogurt onion masala become watery, turn the heat high for 2 to 3 minutes, so that water evaporates quickly and while keep stirring the onion masala frequently. Turn the heat down to medium.

Add tomato puree

Add yogurt and mix

11. In about 5 to 6 minutes tomato puree and onions will blend together. Once all the water has evaporated you will see the oil in pan that means onion masala is done. 12. Add chopped potatoes, fried wadiyan, salt and 4 cups of water and mix them with the onion masala, turn the heat to high for 3 to 4 minutes or until gravy start boiling then turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan with the lid and let it cook. Stir periodically so that onion masala coats the potatoes and wadiyan all the time.

Onion masala is done

Add chopped potatoes and fried wadiyan

Mix potatoes and wadiyan with the onion masala

Add water and mix

13. In about 25 to 30 minutes potatoes and wadiyan will become tender. Mash few pieces of potatoes that will make the gravy thicker.Add chopped green Chiles and chopped coriander leaves, once you have the desired consistency of the gravy turn the stove off.

6. Now add chopped tomatoes and yogurt to the fried spices, stirring frequently, with the cooking spoon mashes the tomatoes so that they become soft quickly. In about 5 to 7 minutes tomatoes will become soft and blend well with the masala.

Mix and fry the spices

Add chopped tomatoes and yogurt

Mix yogurt and tomatoes with fried spices

Tomatoes are blend in with spices

7. Add chopped potatoes, fried wadiyan pieces, salt and 4 cups of water close the lid of the pressure cooker and place the weight on the lid, turn the heat to medium high.

Add chopped potatoes and fried wadiyan

Mix the potatoes and wadiyan with tomatoes and spices

Add water and mix

Close the Pressure cooker

8. In about 5 to 7 minutes as the pressure cooker starts steaming turn the heat down to medium and cook for another 5 minutes turn the heat off and wait until steam goes down. (Different brand of cooker required different time to cook).

9. Once the pressure of pressure cooker goes down open the lid, with the serving spoon mix, add more water if needed, mash the tomato pieces if there is any and cook for about 5 to 6 minutes.

10. Mash few pieces of potatoes that will make the gravy thicker. Add chopped green Chiles and chopped coriander leaves, once you have the desired consistency of the gravy turn the stove off.

Open the pressure cooker

Add chopped green chilies and chopped coriander leaves

Aloo wadiyan are ready

Aloo wadiyan

Tips:

1. If cooking without the pressure cooker you need to add more water and it take longer to cook.

2. If you do not like too hot and spicy then remove the whole black pepper or coriander seeds from the wadiyan pieces before cooking.

3. When you make aloo wadi, do not add too much chili powder or spices as wadi is already very spicy.

Please take the time to let me know what you think about my recipe. Your comments would be helpful to me to improve the recipe.